LGBT Community Faces Financial Obstacles

Some things haven't changed. | Copyright Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

In a new survey, Prudential Financial explores the financial experiences of the LGBT community for the first time since the Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriages legal in all 50 states. While half of those surveyed said the ruling has simplified the financial lives of the community by giving married couples the ability to file joint tax returns, pay for health benefits with pre-tax earnings and list same-sex partners on health insurance, only a third said the Supreme Court decision affected their plans. Issues like wage inequality, workplace insecurity and pension survivor benefits still present obstacles for LGBT people seeking financial security. Same-sex partners listed legal and institutional barriers to achieving their financial goals as their biggest concern, and 45 percent said they need to follow a different path to meet those needs.

Cybersecurity Top of Mind for CCOs

Always on their mind.

Cybersecurity is the top concern among compliance officers at investment advisory firms, at a time when cyber breaches at large companies continue to pop up in the news. Eighty-eight percent of investment advisor firms say cybersecurity/privacy/identity theft is the compliance issue they're most worried about this year, according to a survey by the Investment Adviser Association, ACA Compliance Group and asset management holding company OMAM. That's followed by anti-money laundering/anti-bribery and corruption, cited by 24 percent of respondents, up from 8 percent last year. Other compliance areas of concern include advertising/marketing, with 19 percent, custody, with 10 percent, and fraud prevention, with 9 percent. Seventy-four percent of firms plan to increase the amount of testing done around cybersecurity, while 40 percent expect to increase testing on advertising/marketing.

New Fidelity Website For Retirement Advisors

Keeping it simple. | Copyright Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

Fidelity's technology team worked with 150 retirement advisors to learn how they spend their time researching investments, compiling reports and navigating the existing site. The result is FidelityConnect, a new website for the 5,000 advisors and consultants managing workplace plans for Fidelity, a new dashboard that gives advisors an instant, high-level analysis of all of their plans kept with Fidelity and the ability to drill down into plans, investments and compensation. David Westra, a partner at MRA Associated in Phoenix and a collaborator on the website, said FidelityConnect saves time he previously wasted pulling reports or looking for information. "As an advisor with many clients, I often need a quick view of all our clients that Fidelity recordkeeps," Westra said. "The website we're helping develop is intuitive and easy-to-understand, allowing me more time to spend helping clients." The website is being piloted now and is expected to be fully available during the first quarter of 2017.

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